40 Years Later: Remembering the first Farm Aid concert
Celebrating family farmers and homegrown food!
The memorable relief concert took place on September 22, 1985.
On July 13, 1985, before performing "When The Ship Comes In" with Keith Richards and Ron Wood at the “Live Aid” benefit concert, Bob Dylan remarked about family farmers within the United States being in danger of losing their farms through mortgage debt, saying to the worldwide audience exceeding one billion people, "I hope that some of the money ... maybe they can just take a little bit of it, maybe ... one or two million, maybe ... and use it, say, to pay the mortgages on some of the farms and, the farmers here, owe to the banks." Although his comments were heavily criticized, they inspired fellow musicians Willie Nelson, John Mellencamp, and Neil Young to organize the “Farm Aid” benefit concert to raise money for and help family farmers in the United States. The first concert was held on September 22, 1985, at the Memorial Stadium in Champaign, Illinois, before a crowd of 80,000 people. Performers included Bob Dylan, Billy Joel, B.B. King, Loretta Lynn, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty, among others, and raised over $9 million for U.S. family farmers.
Source: Wikipedia.org
Legends.
Cash, Nelson, and Jennings share the stage.
Source: Farmaid.org
Witnessing History.
Photo Credit: Paul Natkin. Source: Farmaid.org
1985 was when we learned that music has the power to make a difference. “Farm Aid”, along with “Live Aid” and “We Are the World”, demonstrated that music had become more than entertainment, but a social movement. After forty years, Farm Aid is still working to increase awareness of the challenges faced by our nation’s family farms, including here in the Heartland. More recently, the organization advocated for country-of-origin labeling for beef, so that consumers would know from where their beef was sourced. According to Farm Aid, “American meat eaters may not realize that beef labeled a "Product of the USA" may have been imported from another country.” This year’s benefit concert took place a couple of days ago at Huntington Bank Stadium in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
